Sarah Payne's parents yesterday spoke of their certainty that she would be found unharmed. Although the hunt for their eight-year-old was approaching its third week, Sara and Michael Payne, both 31, refused to contemplate the possibility they would never again see her alive.

Police looking for the missing schoolgirl Sarah Payne yesterday issued a computer likeness of a man they are seeking in connection with her disappearance in what detectives described as a "significant" step forward.

Police forces across the country are urgently interviewing high-risk paedophiles and other sex offenders in a desperate bid to track down missing Sarah Payne. The interviews with registered offenders will attempt to establish their whereabouts at the time the eight-year-old disappeared. DNA samples may be taken from them.

Police hunting the missing schoolgirl Sarah Payne yesterday spoke of a growing possibility that she had been abducted, as they revealed that two men had been arrested and their homes searched in connection with the case.

Detectives investigating the disappearance of eight-year-old
Sarah Payne have arrested two people, police said today. The child has not yet been found and the police's prime focus remained her safe recovery, a spokesman added.